The Trump administration had a credible official leading the Federal Emergency Management Agency. His name was Cameron Hamilton, and he had experience, not only as a Navy SEAL and former combat medic, but also as the former director of the Emergency Medical Services Division at the Department of Homeland Security.
He was nevertheless fired last month, not because he did something wrong, but because Hamilton — a lifelong conservative Republican — testified before Congress and told lawmakers that it would be in the public’s interest if FEMA continued to exist. Donald Trump, of course, wants to eliminate FEMA altogether, and so Hamilton, one day after his testimony, found himself out of a job.
He was soon replaced by David Richardson, who has no background in emergency management, and who, on his first day as the agency’s acting chief, told FEMA’s staff that he would “run right over” anyone who gets in his way. A month later, as Reuters reported, Richardson continues to make newsworthy comments.
Staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency were left baffled on Monday after the head of the U.S. disaster agency said he had not been aware the country has a hurricane season, according to four sources familiar with the situation. The remark was made during a briefing by David Richardson, who has led FEMA since early May.
As NBC News reported, administration officials didn’t deny that Richardson made the comments, though the defense was that the acting FEMA director was joking. A statement from the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, added that the allegations that Richardson was sincere about his ignorance were “meanspirited.”
Among those who actually heard the comments, there was apparently some question as to whether Richardson was kidding or not, but either way, this was a curious thing for an acting FEMA chief to joke about two days into hurricane season.
Unfortunately, the alleged “joke” wasn’t the only newsworthy part of Richardson’s comments. The Wall Street Journal reported, for example, that the Trump-appointed official also announced that FEMA had scrapped plans to come up with a hurricane-response plan, choosing instead to simply reuse last year’s plan.
By way of social media, the Department of Homeland Security described the Journal’s reporting as “fake news,” adding, “FEMA is full-steam ahead with an effective and focused plan to respond to hurricane season, while empowering states to further lead their own disaster response.”
But the statement didn’t exactly deny the accuracy of the Journal’s report, so much as it took issue with the newspaper including the word “scraps” in its headline.
It’s also worth noting for context that Richardson recently told FEMA officials that he intended to complete work on the agency’s hurricane-response plan by the week of May 19. Now, if the Journal’s report is accurate, the new strategy is to dust off the Biden administration’s plan and run with it.
And while that might seem like a reasonable solution — especially given the fact that the Biden administration was competent — it’s not nearly that simple. As the Journal’s report added, some FEMA officials were “confused” about how the agency could follow the 2024 blueprint “given the agency had already eliminated key programs and sharply cut its workforce.”
All of this comes on the heels of The Washington Post reporting that FEMA was already facing a backlog of 19 unprocessed emergency aid requests — and that was before hurricane season began.
What’s more, the broader concerns are not limited to FEMA. There are related issues at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, while at the National Weather Service, The Guardian reported this week, “There is a lack of meteorologists in 15 of the regional weather service offices along the coastline from Texas to Florida, as well as in Puerto Rico.” The same Guardian report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, added, that the Miami-based National Hurricane Center “is short five specialists.” To be sure, The New York Times reported that the National Weather Service, after having already lost nearly 600 employees in recent months, intends to start hiring additional staff to help “stabilize” the department. What’s less clear is when these employees will be hired, whether they’ll have the necessary experience, how long it will take to get them up to speed, and why the NWS laid off so many of its employees in the first place. Looking ahead, Americans might get lucky. It’s possible that the projections are wrong and the United States won’t have to deal with any deadly hurricanes this year — or for that matter, in the coming years. Maybe there won’t be any real-world consequences tied to the administration’s latest moves at FEMA, NWS and NOAA. But as the president and his team move further away from responsible governing and disaster preparedness, counting on good fortune hardly seems like a wise strategy. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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